Recent Fact Sheets

Presenter: Costa Georgiadis, 16/06/2012

SERIES 23 Episode 12

I'm in the Adelaide Hills and I've come to visit Andrea Hoffmann and Julie King - two passionate gardeners who know a thing or two about self-sufficiency and growing a productive garden. They have 1.2 hectares absolutely overflowing with vegies, herbs, fruit and chooks.

They both work from home and moved up to the Hills to get some land. Now, Julie says, "Who wants to go to the city?'" Andrea agrees: "We work from home and if you were in the office and you're not busy, you'd have to pretend that you're busy, but we go out in the garden, pull a weed, we do some pruning and then maybe think 'I should go inside and work a little bit'."

Their garden beds are the aisles of their fruit and vegetable supermarket - including Purple Okra! (Abelmoschus esculentus). Andrea says they grow them for the fruit but also the flowers - which are delicious.

Andrea and Julie succession-plant their vegetables to ensure crops year-round. Despite the cold, there are blocks of corn and zucchini nearby. There are even tomatoes, still on the go. How many varieties have they grown this year?

"Ah this year, we've only grown about 20," apologises Andrea. 20!"I experiment every year - what works, but basically just give them really good soil. I don't water them much. Maybe, depending on the weather, once a week. And this one's my favourite tomato. That's a 'Jaune Flamme.' I really love that. It's productive, it's tasty and if I had to choose only one tomato that I could grow, it would be that."

Mulching MachinesA clucking in the background attracts attention. Andrea explains their chooks consist of 26 girls and 1 boy - an old boy. "We were able to rescue some ex-battery hens and it's hard to say no - so we got more than we actually needed."

We've moved from the vegie aisles into the fruit department, where there are oranges, apples, a tangelo, crabapples and a wide variety of eating apples. "We try to harvest them for about 6 months, so we've got some early ones, some small ones, 'Beauty of Bath' that we harvest at the end of December, right through to Galas, Golden Delicious and the Lady William which we harvest in August," says Julie.

Julie's also the berry keeper. This year, they've harvested a huge 16 kilograms of autumn-producing raspberries from only two rows, for a period of seven weeks. The Heritage berries are so delicious I want to move in! "And in summer, we harvested 25 kilos from these three rows," says Julie.

Home supermarketI ask how often Andrea and Julie go to the supermarket."Oh, once every 4 months or so. We only need paper products," says Julie. Andrea continues: "Well, you know, you grow so much food - if you feel hungry, we just see what's growing and go for that."They say that's what they get out of their garden.

"The satisfaction of growing your own food. And we started off small, what 12 years ago and it's just grown and grown and now we can supply family, friends, fruit and veg swap group for any excess, make wine, preserves - everything," says Julie.

Andrea answers: "We don't regard it as work or anything. It's fun, it's satisfying and you sit down at the table to a nice meal and you think, 'Ohhh...'" "... we grew all that," finishes Julie.

Information contained in this fact sheet is a summary of material included in the program. If further information is required, please contact your local nursery or garden centre.

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